


Happy Mistakes

by alexmercer



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Declarations Of Love, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, POV Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:28:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28222416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexmercer/pseuds/alexmercer
Summary: There were times it seemed that Luke Patterson’s life was governed solely by misunderstandings and mistakes, but this was the happiest mistake he had ever made.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex Mercer/Luke Patterson/Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex Mercer/Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Luke Patterson/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 186
Collections: jatpdaily secret santa 2020





	Happy Mistakes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [merihn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/merihn/gifts).



> This was written for @merihn for the JatPDaily Secret Santa 2020! This was a totally new writing experience for me (as in I've never done any poly or non-canon ships) and I found the challenge really fun. It's a getting together fic and has more emphasis on Luke/Reggie. Also fake dating as you said you liked that trope and it's one of my favourites too! I really hope you like this, Merry Christmas!

There were times it seemed that Luke Patterson’s life was governed solely by misunderstandings and mistakes.

For starters, his band (Sunset Curve) had met after a mistake on a timetable that had caused all three boys to have booked the same music room to practise in after school, though that had worked out in their favour because now they were inseparable from each other and part of an awesome rock band. Then there was his first meeting with his best friend Julie Molina which had happened after a misunderstanding – a year on, both of them were still utterly bewildered as to how Luke had somehow accidentally broken into Julie’s mother’s studio, mistaking it for his own. And there was the misunderstanding that had led to Luke going on his first date with his now-boyfriend Alex; Luke had asked if Alex “wanted to go out some time?” and Alex had thought he’d meant on a date – too polite to correct him, Luke had gone with it, and now they had been a couple for six months. It had worked out nicely actually; Luke had been crushing on Alex for months and was too afraid to ask him out.

This story, like so many others in Luke Patterson’s life, started with a misunderstanding.

“What do you mean you’re not coming to my cousin’s wedding?”

As Sunset Curve packed their equipment away after a very successful practise, Luke looked at his boyfriend over the top of his drumkit, trying not to sound too hurt. Usually when Luke reminded Alex of plans they had made, Alex would respond excitedly – the flat, unimpressed look he was giving Luke right that moment was practically the polar opposite.

“I told you I couldn’t come when you first asked me,” Alex said, standing up and tucking his drumsticks into his back pocket.

Luke shook his head. “No. I said, ‘my cousin is getting married on the thirtieth, you’ll be my date, right?’ and you said, ‘I’d love to’!”

Alex heaved a sigh that Luke thought was far too dramatic – if anyone had the right to be sighing disappointedly right now it was him.

“I did say I’d love to,” Alex agreed. “And after that I said, ‘but I can’t because my little sister’s dance recital is that same day’. Although I don’t think you heard because you interrupted me to start raving about the matching suits you were going to get us.”

“That does sound like you,” Reggie, Sunset Curve’s bassist, piped up from the other side of the studio where he was packing his bass away.

Luke glared at him and then turned back to Alex, puppy-dog eyes wide. Normally, Luke’s puppy-dog eyes would have Alex tripping over himself to make him happy, but then he simply placed a comforting, apologetic hand on Luke’s cheek. Luke couldn’t help but lean into the touch.

“I’m sorry,” Alex said gently, “but I’ve had this planned for months and I promised my sister I’d show up.”

Luke sighed. “I know. It’s alright. I should have listened to you the first time. But I need a date – my cousin took so long to sort out her seating plan and I don’t want to have to tell her she needs to change it because I’m coming alone now.”

“Take Julie,” Alex suggested with a shrug.

“No,” Luke said, shaking his head, “I told my cousin I was bringing my boyfriend. I’m pretty sure she’ll notice if I show up with a girl.”

“I could go with you,” Reggie suggested. Luke looked to him, expecting him to be wearing the expression he usually wore when he was joking about, but to his surprise, Reggie looked serious.

“Wait, really?” Luke said, edging towards him. “You’d be my date?”

Reggie nodded, beaming brightly. “Sure. I’ll just pretend to be your boyfriend for the night and everything will be fine. On one condition – I want to wear the matching suits.”

Luke turned to face Alex, who had suddenly gone very quiet and very still. “Hey Alex. Is it cool? I mean… does it bother you if Reggie pretends to be my boyfriend for the wedding?”

To Luke, it looked like Alex was short-circuiting. His eyes were darting rapidly between the other two, his face had turned a brilliant shade of red, and his mouth was bobbing open and closed like a shellshocked goldfish.

Alex pointed from Luke to Reggie to Luke to Reggie. “You… you two? Pretend to date?”

“Yeah,” Luke said carefully. He moved a little closer to Alex, concerned that he was acting stranger than normal. “Are you okay with that? It’s fine if you’re not, I’m sure we can think of something el–”

“No!” Alex exclaimed, almost too quickly and a little too loud. Luke jolted back in surprise. Alex cleared his throat and tried to adopt a casual tone of voice, but he missed by a mile. “No, it’s cool. You two can… Yeah, you can fake date. I guess.”

Luke watched him for a moment longer, trying to figure out what had sparked the sudden awkwardness. Alex simply looked back at him, maintaining a little too much eye contact.

“Okay,” Luke said slowly. “Reggie, the wedding starts at half past eleven tomorrow morning, I’ll come and collect you at ten, alright?”

Reggie saluted and smiled brightly again. The sight made Luke feel giddy and he couldn’t help but smile back. Sure, he’d love to be going to the wedding with Alex – his boyfriend – but he found himself oddly unopposed to going with Reggie, excited even. He didn’t know if that was allowed.

The next day, Luke picked Reggie up from his house at their arranged time and drove the both of them to the grand hotel where his cousin’s wedding was taking place. He had to admit, the two of them did look good in their matching suits, even if Reggie’s hadn’t been intended for him. Luke parked the car outside the hotel and looked to Reggie – he felt his heart hammering in his chest when Reggie smiled at him and decided to ignore it.

Reggie wasn’t his boyfriend. It was only for tonight.

“You ready to do this?” he asked Reggie.

Reggie beamed and grabbed Luke’s hand, lacing their fingers. “Let’s go.”

The two walked into the hotel and were ushered down corridor after corridor to a beautifully decorated room in which row upon row of chairs faced the front where someone in a suave black tuxedo was standing – it was Luke’s cousin’s partner, and when they saw Luke they gave him a small wave.

Luke led Reggie, hands still clasping each other, to their seats. Not long later, the ceremony started and Luke watched his cousin Jeanette walk up the aisle.

“Wow,” Reggie whispered. “She looks beautiful.”

The comment sparked a flame of jealousy in Luke’s chest, the same kind he got whenever Alex mentioned his celebrity crush, some professional skater.

He reminded himself again: Reggie wasn’t his boyfriend. It was only for tonight.

He swallowed his bitter anger and frustration and mustered a smile instead. “She does, doesn’t she.”

Hours later, long after the sun had set, the couple had been married, the food had been eaten and the drinks had been drunk, even after the live band had stopped playing and they had resorted to using Spotify and a loudspeaker, Luke was sat at the edge of the room with Reggie, just talking to one another about everything and nothing. Neither of them had been drinking, but Luke felt tipsy under the influence of the strobe lighting and the loud music, and he could see in Reggie’s flushed face that he felt the same. He was acutely aware of how close the two of them were sitting, how one of Reggie’s hands was rested on his leg, how he could feel that spot like it was on fire.

“Luke! I’m so sorry I’ve not come to say hello!”

Luke looked up abruptly to see the bright happy face of his cousin Jeanette smiling down at him. Despite the fact that she was clearly a little drunk, she still looked gorgeous with her blonde hair piled atop her head and her wedding dress flowing out around her.

“No worries,” Luke said, reluctantly dropping Reggie’s hand and standing up to hug his cousin. “You’ve been busy, you know, getting married and stuff. Congratulations.”

Jeanette smiled and then her attention turned to Reggie. She nudged Luke and said teasingly, “Care to introduce me?”

“This is my boyfriend, Reggie,” Luke said as Reggie stood up and shook Jeanette’s hand. Luke had given up on trying to ignore the fact that saying ‘boyfriend’ and ‘Reggie’ in the same sentence gave him butterflies.

“Sup,” Reggie said to greet Jeanette.

“I’m happy for you, Luke,” Jeanette said. “I thought you’d never find someone to put up with you. I half thought you were making up having a boyfriend just so that I’d stop making fun of you.”

The three of them laughed, though Luke shared a knowing look with Reggie.

“That’d be ridiculous,” Luke said. “Why would I make up having Reggie as my boyfriend?”

“Totally weird,” Reggie agreed, laughing.

“Well,” Jeanette said. “You two seem happy. Congratulations. Now, I’ve got other guests I still haven’t said hello to, but I’ll come and find you later, alright?”

Without waiting for an answer, Jeanette swept away in a flurry of white chiffon. Still chuckling, Luke and Reggie sat back down, their hands finding each other automatically.

“Seems like we’re really selling this whole boyfriend thing,” Reggie commented, not looking at Luke.

He nodded. “Yeah. We must be better actors than we look.”

But Luke knew that he wasn’t acting. He hoped that Reggie wasn't either.

A heavy silence settled between the two of them for a moment, until the music abruptly changed and a slow song started playing. As if in a trance, couples flooded the dancefloor, immediately wrapped up in each other, swaying to the song like they were the only ones in the room.

Luke clutched Reggie’s hand tighter. “If we really want to sell this…”

Reggie nodded and pulled Luke to his feet. “Then we should join them.”

So they did. Luke and Reggie slowly walked onto the dancefloor. They carefully figured out how to hold each other in a way that felt natural and they began to dance. Luke looked into Reggie’s eyes – Reggie was all he could see, it was as if the rest of the world melted away as they danced. It was perfect. Eventually, Reggie’s head came to rest on Luke’s shoulder. It felt natural, it felt right, except there was one thing it was missing…

Alex. Luke wanted Alex there too. He wanted to dance with both of them, he wanted to hold both of them, he wanted to kiss both of them. He wanted Alex to remain his boyfriend, and he wanted Reggie to become it.

He wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

An hour or so later, the night drew to a close. Tipsy couples made their way out of the hotel, Luke and Reggie among them, drunk on excitement and emotion. Luke drove Reggie home – neither of them said a word the entire time, but Reggie’s hand covered Luke’s on the gearstick.

When they pulled up outside Reggie’s house, Luke turned to his friend and said, “Thank you for doing this, Reggie. It was really cool of you. I had a great night.”

Reggie smiled; something about it seemed bittersweet. “I had fun too. And it was no problem – just one night, right?”

At that, Luke couldn’t help but feel deflated. “Yeah. Just one night.”

After Reggie had got out the car and Luke had begun to drive away, he had thought to himself that it was over.

And of course it wasn’t.

The months crept by and Luke’s feelings only grew. As it always had, Luke’s mind ran haywire when Alex so much as laughed. But the new sensation of his heart skipping a beat whenever Reggie smiled took some getting used to. Like normal, Alex would stay nights at Luke’s house and they’d share a bed, holding on to each other, but Luke found himself wishing that Reggie were there too, that he could hold on to both of them. When he looked at Alex, his breath was stolen from him; the same happened when he looked at Reggie.

Luke didn’t say anything about any of it. How could he? What would Alex think? What would Reggie think? Luke thought that there was too much that could go wrong, too many mistakes and misunderstandings that could be made. He kept quiet.

Until a misunderstanding forced him to come clean.

Six months had passed since the wedding and it was Alex and Luke’s one-year anniversary. To celebrate, Alex had booked a table at the fanciest restaurant in town. Luke had been both unable to wait and absolutely dreading this night for months.

He and Alex were sat at their table, hands clasped together between them, looking through the menus. Everything was posh-sounding and half the dish’s names were French – Luke had asked Alex for about twelve translations already and they hadn’t even ordered their drinks.

He was just about to ask Alex what boeuf bourguignon was when a loud voice behind him called, “Luke! Fancy seeing you here!”

Luke whirled around and immediately panicked. There was his cousin Jeanette with her partner, smiling brightly and heading straight towards him. And there he was, sat with Alex, his boyfriend of one year, not the one that Jeanette had met at her wedding.

“Hey Jeanette,” he said, aiming for casual. “Great to see you.”

“What are you doing here?” Jeanette asked. She looked towards Alex. “Oh, are you two on a date?”

“Yeah,” Luke said shortly, smiling and praying that she would go away, or at the very least not ask–

“So did things not work out between you and that sweet boy Reggie?”

Alex choked on his water – it seemed as if it had just clicked who Luke was talking to.

The thing about Luke was that he had never been a good liar. None of his friends were either – Alex, Reggie, and Julie couldn’t lie to save their lives. But Luke needed to give a response, he couldn’t have just stayed silent. He could, perhaps, have offered up the truth and explained that he hadn’t really been dating Reggie. He could have agreed with her and said they’d broken up. But those excuses would have been too easy, and Luke’s brain loved overcomplicating things.

So, before he’d had any chance to think it over, what came out of Luke’s mouth was, “No, this is my other boyfriend.”

Alex choked again.

Jeanette looked utterly bewildered. “Your… other boyfriend?”

 _Well_ , Luke thought, _down the rabbit hole I go_.

“Yep. This is Alex – it’s actually our one-year anniversary today, that’s why we’re here. Then Reggie, who you met, I haven’t been dating him as long but he’s still my boyfriend. We’re all boyfriends, all three of us. Does that make sense?”

Jeanette’s face said no, but her mouth said, “Of course. Well… alright, well, would the three of you like to come over for dinner some time soon? All together? I hate to think that we got to meet one of your boyfriends properly but not the other.” She gestured to Alex, who was still coughing slightly.

“Sure,” said Luke before he thought better of it. “We’d love to.”

“Great,” Jeanette returned. “We’ll leave you to your date then.”

With a wave, she and her partner turned and made their way to their own table. Luke looked to Alex, who – the second the couple walked out of view – leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms and pouted.

“You do remember that we aren’t actually dating Reggie, right?” he said.

“What was I supposed to say?” Luke countered.

“I don’t know! You weren’t supposed to get us and our fake boyfriend invited to dinner!”

Luke sighed. “You’re right. How do we explain this to Reg?”

Alex shrugged helplessly.

They made their decision to simply rip the band-aid off and tell Reggie a few days later after Jeanette had texted Luke with a time and date for their dinner arrangements. After rehearsal one Saturday, Luke and Alex sat Reggie down and Luke explained the situation.

Reggie was quiet for a moment. There was an unreadable expression on his face – Luke didn’t like it. It usually meant that Reggie was, for whatever reason, upset. He didn’t know why Reggie might have been upset by it, but he wanted to fix it. He wanted to hug him, press a kiss to his forehead, and tell him everything was alright.

“Fine,” said Reggie quietly, avoiding eye contact with the other two boys. “We’ll just… we’ll pretend to date again. It’s fine.”

At that moment, Luke understood. Reggie didn’t want to pretend. Just like Luke, he didn’t want to pretend that the three of them were dating. Maybe Reggie didn’t want to pretend because he didn’t feel the same way, but maybe, just maybe, he didn’t want to pretend because he didn’t want to get hurt and be left out. Maybe Reggie loved Luke and Alex too.

So Luke finally spoke up.

“I don’t want to pretend to date you,” he blurted. There was a short silence in which Luke realised how that had sounded.

“Fine,” Reggie said, sounding even more hurt than before. “Then just tell your cousin we bro–”

“No,” Luke said, jumping to his feet. Alex and Reggie’s eyes followed him. He hoped he wasn’t mistaken when he saw the same kind of love in both of their expressions. “No, that isn’t what I meant. I meant… Alex, I love you. I love you so much it scares me. Every time you smile it’s like there’s fireworks inside me. I’d do anything for you. But… I feel that way about Reggie too. Reg, every time I look at you it’s like my heart is going to stop beating. It’s like you steal my breath every single time. And I don’t know if you guys feel the same way or if me saying this is going to ruin everything, but I want to be with both of you. For real. That’s why I don’t want to pretend.”

Silence. He still couldn’t read either Alex or Reggie’s expressions – both were complicated and his outburst had left him too tired to unpick them. Alex, clearing his throat, was the first to say something.

“Um… okay, I… I feel the same way. I’d like to date both of you too.”

Luke felt himself start to smile. He knelt down in front of Alex, his breath-taking boyfriend, who was smiling down at him brightly. He took Alex’s nimble drummer’s hands in his and felt electric shoot down his arms like it did every time he touched Alex.

“Really?” he said quietly. Alex just nodded.

In sync, both of them looked to Reggie.

Luke cleared his throat. “What do you say, Reggie? Do you want to be our boyfriend?”

The way Reggie’s smile slowly blossomed on his face made Luke’s heart melt, and he saw in Alex’s expression that it had the same effect on him. Reggie nodded, saying, “Yes, yes, I’d love to,” and without any of them saying another word they enveloped each other in the tightest group hug imaginable.

Luke finally got to hold them both.

He pressed a gentle kiss first to Alex’s cheek and then to Reggie’s forehead, wanting to kiss them but not break their hold on each other. At that moment, everything felt right. Like the completion of a jigsaw, all the missing pieces came together to form the beautiful picture that was the boyfriends of Sunset Curve.

That night, they didn’t leave the studio. They fell back elatedly onto the couch in a heap, tangled up in each other, simply relishing the joy of finally being together. Luke fell asleep sprawled across both of his boyfriends laps as Alex and Reggie hugged each other close.

So yes. Luke Patterson’s life was dictated by mistakes and misunderstandings. But he got his two brilliant boyfriends all because of a mistake, so it was the happiest mistake he had ever made.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr: @gaylebcovington and @yonderlands


End file.
